This last Saturday, August 8th, a special fair was carried out in the Tupac Amaru Plaza of Cusco. It promoted a distinctive seafood called pot and was called: “Eat Pota.”
These are cephalopods related to squids and generally called cuttlefish in English, although the names do not match up exactly between the two languages.
They put up several stands to promote this marine food. In some of them they merely sold pota by the kilo. You could buy it from 1.50/S a Kilo. Other stands were occupied by the city`s cevicherias and they presented pota as ceviche.
Among them were Asumare, Las Machitas, and more. Not only did they have ceviche form pota, they also made chicharrón, leche de tigre with pota, and anticuchos (skewers) of pota.
Wonderful recipes for making up pota were revealed by chefs form the city’s restaurants and the fair starred chef Javier Arévalo who won the Mistura contest in 2009. He demonstrated the preparation of magnificent dishes such as carpaccio from pota, wantan made with pota, and an Asian stir fry with pota.
Because the fair drew a large quantity of people lines formed to purchase pota and food made from it. The day was sunny and warm. People gathered without obstacle and waited their turn.
The fair was a complete success. The people of Cusco finished up the supply of pota that came from the coast. By midday the vendors no longer had any and there were only a very few dishes remaining for sale.
The fair was part of the national program “Let’s Eat Fish” (“A Comer Pescado”) whose purpose is to promote the consumption of seafood.
